Get ready for cyber attack it’s more than strange. It’s weird.

Malaysian government has nothing new and fresh to offer and so bankrupt are they of new initiatives (not to mention principles, morals and dignity), they keep using the same old tricks over and over again. It’s becoming such a joke! Gobind is absolutely right, when I read about the govetnment’s pledge, my first thought was that they think by copying TAR, people will be emotionally touched and believe them. But they (and especially nazri) are not even half the man TAR’s big toe was. It just came out desperate and insincere. Stupid stupid umno. All bloody idiots.Not to abuse..don’t trust BN even for a bit. They are abusing sedition act all the time. How can a tiger change it stripes. BN can never change, the only change is that we the rakyat change them in the next GE. Kick them out of Putrajaya.we cannot have a guillotine hanging over our head, do we? why do we have it there in the first place, if we do not intend to use? This personal pledge by a minister who has no role of any form in ensuring compliance is not worth anything at all. If laws are well thought out and enacted, there would be no need for any pledge. All such pledges have been ineffective in the past, with Mahathir being the biggest culprit. The refusal of the Cabinet (incidentally chaired by Muhyiddin in Najib’s absense) clearly shows who is the real culprit when Najib himself indicated a review. Doesn’t this fact speak volumes about Muhyiddin’s intentions, undermining Najib at every opportunity!he law surely has no room for personal pledge…especially when it comes from a politicia’s mouthAt the present standard and globalisation of the world intellectual interchange, for the govt to recently pass a law which can be abused by them tantamount to possible abuse of the law which is autocratic and dictatorial and a blatant disregard to the democratic principles of govt for the people. If the govt is unable to differentiate what is good and bad law, they can consult other countries (if this nation lack properly qualified intellects because of the education system) as the world has become smaller through globalisatiion.

A BN deputy minister has admitted that Section 114(A) has been worded in a manner that can impart different meanings and thus make for multi-interpretations or misinterpretation. Despite this, the government has no qualms about allowing it through simply because the parties charged will be automatically deemed guilty and to bear the onus of proof. The amendment must be repealed outright.or, at the very least, subject to a judicial review immediately.

Hackers target Al Jazeera websites
Statement on redirected page said cyber attack was in protest against TV station’s coverage of Syrian conflict.Hackers targeted Al Jazeera websites overnight, replacing the homepages with a statement saying it was done in protest against the Doha-based television station’s coverage of the Syrian conflict.

During the cyber attack that lasted several hours, visitors to Al Jazeera sites were redirected to a web page with a Syrian flag. A statement on the page said the attack was executed “in response to your stand against Syria (the people and the government) and for support for militant terrorism”.

A statement from Al Jazeera said the attack did not compromise Al Jazeera’s web server directly, but a third-party service provider that distributes the station’s online content worldwide had its security breached.

The station said US authorities were investigating the attack since the content distributor was based in that country.

The Gulf state of Qatar, where Al Jazeera is based, has been a vocal critic of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since the uprising against his rule started last year.

Syrian Electronic Army

Since the start of the Syrian uprising, hackers believed to be Assad supporters have frequently vandalised websites to promote pro-government messages. Pro-Assad hackers calling themselves the Syrian Electronic Army have taken responsibility for many of these attacks.

In August 2012, news agency Reuters had its blogging platform hacked. “Fabricated blog posts were falsely attributed to several Reuters journalists,” a Reuters statement said.

Human rights group Amnesty International also saw its blog defaced by hackers, who wrote posts purporting to show the organisation siding with the Syrian government. One post claimed Syrian rebels were responsible for the Houla massacre, whereas Amnesty’s position is the opposite: that the Syrian government and militias were responsible.

Even Harvard University had its website defiled by the Syrian Electronic Army a few months ago.

The group also apparently tried to shut down pages on the social networking site Facebook that had views critical of the Syrian government.

Energy firms under fire

The attack on Al Jazeera came after a slew of recent web strikes on Gulf-based energy firms.

On August 27, malware damaged the IT and administrative services of Qatar-based natural gas firm RasGas, although the virus did not affect gas production or delivery, Doha News reported. No group has yet claimed responsibility.

Oil company Saudi Aramco suffered a recent virus attack, thought to be Shamoon malware, that affected about 75 per cent of the company’s computers. It was not fully fixed for about two weeks. A group calling itself the “Cutting Sword of Justice”, which opposes Saudi Arabia’s ruling al-Saud family, claimed responsibility.

Like Qatar, Saudi Arabia also supports the Syrian rebels.

Our daily lives are filled with lessons like that of the “potted Yagruma.” For example, in my neighborhood the young people have configured numerous wireless networks to exchange programs, games and files. Like the balcony plant, they don’t want to shape themselves according to the limits placed on them by reality, among which are the absurd restrictions on free access to the Internet. So they have created their own paths to navigate, although in a rudimentary and limited intranet. With a lack of information channels not under the strict supervision of the State other paths also arise to exchange, buy and sell foreign television programs, music and films. In a dizzying variety and quantity.

“How many terabytes do you want?” one of these boys asked me this morning; though he has barely turned 20 he’s already in the “information business.” His question short-circuited my brain because I’d learned to calculate in megabytes, and later in gigabytes, but this is too much for me. He then detailed his offer. He has packages of serials and documentaries, that run from historic themes, espionage, science and technology, to complete biographies. As he could see that I was a reader he also added a collection of interviews with the most important authors of the Latin American “Boom.” He left for the end titles such as “The Great Assassinations of History,” “The Drug Route,” “Extreme Surgery,” “China: An Abyss Between Rich and Poor”… And I stood there with my flash drive in hand not knowing what to choose. In the end I took several gigabytes of a wide variety and ran home. With the same sense of victory as that yagruma which, despite the strict limits of the roof… has managed to slip away toward the vastness.

Here we go again. Indian politicians have never been too comfortable with Internet. It’s too open. Money has little value in the virtual world and hence can’t be used to influence things. The anonymity accorded by it is a little unsettling for those who can’t take any criticism.

the last time we heard about guidelines on the user-generated content on the web was in April when the government notified a set of new rules. After TOI reported on it and the issue was highlighted across the world, the government clarified that it’s not looking to censor anything. The rules were just in place to have some checks and balances as far as online content is concerned, a few government officials said. Well, right!

Something has definitely changed since then. Now Kapil Sibal, the communications & IT minister, strongly believes that government needs to play a more active role in keeping Internet clean. To begin with, he wants intermediaries — or in the other words companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter — to screen the user-generated content before it’s posted on the web.

I don’t want to discuss why Sibal is doing that. Is it because the ‘madam’ featured in some not-so-flattering posts made at Facebook? Or does he genuinely believe the content on the internet hurts religious sensibilities? I am sure we will get some answers in the coming days. But what I can tell you is that by asking websites like Facebook to screen each post before it appears on the wall, government is opening itself for some serious ridicule because of its stupidity. As for why, here are three reasons:

1- You can’t pre-screen a billion Facebook posts everyday: The grand daddies of web censorship, China and Iran, can’t do it. USA, the master of surveillance and e-snooping, can’t do it. It’s absolutely shocking that Indian government is even demanding it. Even if India has to go down the China or Iran route and stifle freedom of speech on the web, it will have to do it with keyword-based automated filtering or monitoring. You just can’t employ “enough” people to screen and approve each Facebook post, each tweet, each blog post made by your citizens. The suggestion of humans monitoring Facebook posts is plain shocking, clearly showing how ignorant our politicians are about the workings of the web.

2- Fighting ridicule on the net is futile: Imagine you are a celebrity whose morphed picture is circulating on facebook. How do you deal with it? If you are wise, you will ignore it. If you are a fool, you will try to stop it or censor it. The way how things work on the web — no borders, different users connected through different networks in different part of the world — the more you try to censor something, the more people will share it. If there is one sentiment that runs through the web it is that people don’t take kindly to any control. And because defying something is so easy, everyone does it. Just for the heck of it.

Let me give one example: In 2007, Thailand went after a few clips that were posted on YouTube, claiming the videos showed the country’s king in bad light. The result was that the copies of the clips appeared on YouTube faster than they could be blocked or removed. Very few of these clips were posted by people with any interest in Thailand. Instead, the web users who were not even aware of Thai king’s name were posting these clips. They simply did not like the notion of blocked content on the web and created copies of clips in question just to mock Thai government.

Finally, Thailand had to ban the whole YouTube. The ban was later lifted but it achieved nothing. The clips in question are still widely available on the web.

3- People create content, not companies: Internet is a very strange place. Companies on the internet are not comparable to companies in the real life. Content on the web is not generated the way it is done in the real life. Much of the web is about people, and companies like Facebook are just virtual places where all these people come together and connect with each other. Making these companies responsible for user-generated content is not really fair. It the government doesn’t hold Indian postal department responsible for a hate mail, how can it ask Facebook to look out for “obscene comments” its users are posting?

There is a lot that is wrong with the web. But at the same time, there is a lot lot more that is right. I am sure many of our politicians don’t like the fact that they are often ridiculed on Twitter or Facebook and they can’t do anything about it. Sadly, that is how it is. Across the world. Similarly, web is a global virtual place. There are no local sense and sensibilities here. Germany, for all its meticulous laws and surveillance, can’t filter out all the pro nazi propaganda from the web.

The way to deal with “offensive” content, if there is any, on the web is by focusing on individual cases. Playing the religious sentiments card — often the favourite argument of politicians in this country — and demanding a broad set of guidelines for pre-screening web content just shows the ignorance of our political class.

, censorship meant blocking social media and pornography at the time as well as filtering opposition websites. After the spark of the Green Movement, it expanded to 32 percent of the Internet’s websites. The number may seem minuscule, but it actually means that most media outlets such as The Huffington Post, blogs, and so forth are filtered from Internet users. According to Reporters Without Borders’ annual report, Iran ranked in the top 10 for being ‘Enemies of the Internet’ due to its imprisonment of bloggers, filtered content, and limited Internet access.

Imagine every time you type a URL in your address bar, you’re hit by what President Obama called an ‘Electronic Curtain,’ referring you to a list of sites that are ‘morally’ approved by the Iranian regime complete with a photo of the Quran or the Imam Reza Shrine in the background.

Iranians, used to being told what not to do, always find a way around the law. Since 2009, the use of circumvention tools (which aided protesters in uploading videos from their mobile phones to YouTube during the protests) such as UltraSurf and FreeGate as well as VPNs are what Iranians are depending on to get their daily dose of filter-free Internet access.

This is why it comes as a surprise that the popular photo sharing application, Instagram has bypassed Iranian censorship.

Ahmed, a computer engineer in Tehran noted that Instagram was still not well-recognized. “It will be soon, and that’s when they will censor it as well,” he added.

If you look up the hashtag #Iran, you’ll find a variety of photos on Instagram. Some are of family gatherings, others are of scenery, I’ve even found some photos of teenagers goofing off. I used Instagram during my latest visit to capture images of historical sites and scenes of everyday Iranian life.

Amongst Iranian iPhone and Android users, only a relative few have been acquainted with the popular photo sharing application. While browsing Instagram user pages, I’ve come to notice that most are under the age of 30 and are from the upper middle class onwards. The number of Instagram users are unknown, but just like many trends in Iran, it won’t be long before the rest of the country catches on to capture their lives with a simple click of a button on their cell phone or whether it’ll be used as a political tool to voice opposition.

The Iranian regime has a good idea that Instagram exists, but does not deem it as a threat — at least for now. During the past month, an official Instagram account was opened under the name of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. When I asked Ahmed what he thought of Khamenei having an account, he said, “His PR probably thought it would be cool to give him a ‘progressive’ look.” Whatever the reasoning behind it, there is definitely a pun intended.

It will be interesting to see how Instagram develops in Iran during the coming months, and whether it will make the list of ‘immoral’ websites and web applications.

The U.S. is the world leader in deployment of 4G wireless networks. From President Obama to his Federal Communications Commission Chairman, national leaders are touting the central role of this next-generation infrastructure to our economy.

Over the past four years, direct U.S. employment by wireless carriers has grown almost 6 percent annually. Overall wireless innovation supports nearly 3.8 million American jobs and contributes nearly $200 billion to the U.S. GDP. And the next wave of innovative networks alone could add $151 billion to our GDP over the next four years and create 770,000 U.S. jobs.

Consumers rely on mobile communications in every aspect of their lives. There are now more mobile subscriptions than people in the U.S. One in five Americans now use a handheld device to access the Internet on a daily basis and mobile data traffic is expected to grow 100-fold over the next 10 years.

Only a small portion of spectrum is currently allocated to the wireless web. Yet the FCC predicts that demand for wireless connectivity could surpass existing capacity as early as next year, with massive deficits soon to follow, resulting in unreliable service and higher connectivity costs.

The Administration has proposed efforts to address the spectrum shortage, but many will take substantial time to implement. So it is critical that the government also take immediate steps, with tools readily available today, to provide relief to consumers and our economy in the short-run.

Simply put, the U.S. needs an ‘all of the above’ strategy to meet our nation’s growing appetite for mobile Internet services. And, here are several concrete steps that our leaders can make this year to help avert ‘comm-mageddon.’

Act on a petition already before the FCC to better utilize lower 700 MHz A Block spectrum for mobile Internet by relocating digital TV stations to reduce interference.
Act expeditiously on pending license transactions, bringing certainty to planning processes, and facilitating a robust secondary market where spectrum moves to its most valued use.
Streamline the federal process for siting communications towers by creating a standardized process with concrete timelines and a master agreement used by all federal agencies.
Resolve pending petitions on WCS spectrum operating rules, enabling the development of standards and equipment to facilitate the use of 20 MHz of spectrum for mobile broadband.
Allow flexible terrestrial use of 2 GHz band of Mobile Satellite Service spectrum to enable its more robust utilization.
Press continued, timely FCC and NTIA collaboration to resolve technical issues associated with the relocation and/or sharing of the 1675-1710 MHz and 1755-1850 MHz bands, to support spectrum efficiency while preserving key government functions.
Initiate FCC rulemakings to set voluntary broadcast spectrum incentive auctions within two years, as required by the 2012 Spectrum Act.
Identify at least 15 MHz of contiguous spectrum for auction by 2015 (as required by the Spectrum Act) to provide additional viable spectrum for mobile services.
Start a rulemaking aimed at permitting use of small cells in the 3.5 GHz band, which would provide carriers with an additional tool to increase the density of network deployment and thereby supply more wireless capacity to consumers.
Begin proceedings to allow use of certain unlicensed devices in the 5350-5470 MHz band.
Stay on target with key timeframes to implement the FirstNet public safety network, which provides the nation with groundbreaking communications capability for our first responders.
The White House should proceed with its plans for a White House-led “Spectrum Management Team” to work with NTIA, FCC and other federal agencies to implement the President’s directives to make 500 MHz of spectrum available for wireless broadband.
It will take a wide array of coordinated efforts to come anywhere near the President’s ambitious and important goal of making 500 additional MHz of spectrum available to expand the mobile Internet. Timely, collaborative action is urgently needed, alongside long-term efforts. Our mobile nation can’t afford a ‘none of the above’ strategy if we are to maintain our global mobile leadership and grow our innovation economy. Our leaders must take bold and specific steps now to unleash the full potential of our mobile future.